School of liberali?

Today's story happened on..yes, you guessed correctly, the train, again.

I took half-day off at work and waited on the platform at 12.35, hoping that by 12.45 the train would come. Then it would take another 50 minutes, so i would arrive by 1.35, just in time for jumu'ah.

If the komuter had an identity card,  i think that it'll have 'Malay' written under the 'race' heading. Because it eventually came at 1.00 o'clock. At this rate you'll never arrive in time for jumu'ah *sigh*

I didn't know where to stop, because i didn't know of any stations close to a mosque. Close to one station, an arab guy tapped me and asked what time jumu'ah was. I told him and he gave an exasperated look. Right out of the blue, a mosque appeared past the train and this guy said 'come on, hurry hurry, we pray here' so we got out and hurried to the mosque that dropped down from the sky.

"What's your name?"

'Ikmal'

"Ismail?"

'La la, ikmal'

"Ismail"

Never mind.

While we were walking, this man asked told me what he was doing. "I went for 11 interviews, this morning i went to INCEIF, not good..malaysia is liberali, school of liberali (liberal school of thought)"

My heart dropped 1 meter.

"To study islamic finance here is not good".

5 metres.

"Where do you work?"

My heart is now at the bottom of a deep deep well. "Ermm, i work at a bank"

"No, no, you must change. You must change your job. Allah will provide rizq for you, there is lots of riba (in the financial system)".

I mildly protested with assurances of 'yes yes we're trying to change (the system)' but i think he misheard me and insisted that i change my job.

"Where are you from?"

"Jordan". 'Amman?' "No, north of amman." Interesting. Its as if allah sent this guy all the way to bring me out for jumu'ah prayers, and tell me about the reality of my job. And from jordan too, no less. What an extraordinary twist of qadr.

Later on, he asked me to look at his work application and translate several things from malay into english. This was no ordinary man, he has a degree and a masters degree and previously worked at a bank and a securities' institution and came to malaysia to apply for a PhD.

And he came all the way to teach me that: you are sitting in a position of responsibility and you see haraam happening. try to change it and don't be content with your wealth and qualifications. Because nothing can save us from falling into a deep, deep pit of blazing flames except of allah.